Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1910 — CHAPTER XVII. [ARTICLE]

CHAPTER XVII.

Meta and Benoni made ready the repast. Betty and Larry and Johnny traded experiences. “Think, Betty, think hard.” urged Larry, “what was it that stole -you that night, or who, and why?” "Tell me' the whole story again,” mused the perplexed Betty. “My brain has slipped a revolution.” So the boys recounted to h«y the night in the Directory Hotel. As 1 they proceeded Betty's eyes widened, her face paled, and in her eagerness she paced the floor excitedly. “Oh, yes, yes, I remember now,” she said. “I d%nt ipto her room—what do you Bay her name is—Mrs. Harcourt? Yes! Well,‘l went In there and I pretended I was ill. And then she telephoned to the clerk and begged him to send up and get me, and then I ran, ran as fast as I could,-and at the corner—and then—well, I bumped Into something. soft and furry, and-r-aud—-don't laugh, but It smelt and felt the same as that horrid, horrid "beast—the Man-Aperilia, you know! And I don't

know any more except being sick, as I told you. and waking up on board that yacht, and getting here!” "Now, who could that Le Malheureux have been?” asW Larry, “and why did they want to steal you?” ¥ “Maybe It was Benont,” suggested Johnny. He took us to her, maybe he 'brought her here.” “Oh, Benoni!” called Larry, “did yoa steal this girl?” Benoni clinched his hands at the suggestion. “I steal her?” hs raged. “And I with a wife!’’ “Nonsense,” said Betty. “He does not talk like Le Malheur.eux, and—well —I don’t feel the repulsion for him I had-for Le Malmeureux. I don’t know what it was, I can't explain it. I shiver still!" “Perhaps it was Man-Aperllla who stole you, Betty,” volunteered Johnny. “You remember you went out to the park for the Inquirer with a photographer to get the _ brute’s picture. Have you forgotten?” Perhaps he fell In love with your charms, and stole make you his bride, like Larry her® is going to do.” “He iriight have stolen me,” admitted Betty, “but, Johnny, don’t be nonsensical!” “About what?” asked Johnny. “About Larry marrying you? A man doesn’t risk his fool neck like Larry's done for you If he Isn’t going to marry the woman at the end of the risk." “Well, but you did it,” retorted Betty. _ “I know, but I had a wife to start out with, and felt I ought to get Larry tied up. too. Besides, I think it will be a joke to assist at the wedding. Oh, I know Larry hasn’t asked you yet, but then he’s afraid to. He’s planning to just carry you off.” “I’m going to draw the line at being abducted twice, till I get a prodigal’s return on the strength ot the first kidnaping,” laughed Betty. “Do you suppose that the Man-Aperilla corild have stolen me? And if so, why? I’d like to find Le Malheureux, perhaps he’d tell me. The why of things as they are is troubling me.” “We’re going to find Le Malheureux right now,” said Meta. “If we don’twe’ll never find ourselves again. We must make haste out of here, Miss Lancey.”

“Oh, call me Bettista, like you havo done,” begged Betty, mimicking the name Meta had given her in the days of their broken dialect. “I like it better,” “Anything, only make haste.” cautioned Benoni. “We cannot take you women where we men have gone. Time is life just now.” Meta aided Betty to don some heavy wraps of panther skin, brought her stockings and the dancing slippers, so economically used because they were the only shoes the American girl possessed and her feet were not Inured to the hard ground and cold stones like Meta’s. Benoni had stowed some provisions In a leather wallet and Meta carried a similar bag heavy and hard. “What have you there, my wife?” questioned the black. “A few of the jewels,” she answered, “I thought we might need them. No, there are not many left” They were an odd cavalcade. Benoni was at the head of the procession, then Johnny, close behind him. Betty, with City Editor Burton tugging at a leash, then Larry, and last of all Meta. Each of the men carried a pistol, and Meta had put a tiny revolver into Betty’s hand. They went down the steps, retracing 'their way along the same corridors down which Tyoga had brought Betty so many weeks before. In the lower passage three pigeons flew out and rested on Betty’s shoulder, hovering there an insfant, then darting away, up towards the rain-gray sky. The boat that awaited them was a smaller v model of the yacht thgt had borne Betty across seas, and .of less elaborate construction. Benoni disappeared below deck to a location similar to the one where Le Malheureux had been wont to station himself. Betty, looking backward through the archway, saw to her surprise hundreds ,f stalwart negroes embarking from a fleet of boats that had suddenly appeared upon the swollen bosom of the river. She started to cry out, but Meta’s hands closed over her mouth. The yacht ducked its nose to the water and went spinning along the tunnel. “Benoni, Benoni,” called Meta, when they had gone a distance of several rods. “They have come! They are there! I must help him,” she added to the Americans, and followed her husband below stairs. (To be continued.)